The City Health Services Office (CHSO) here, in cooperation with the Department of Health (DOH), is eyeing the conduct of a massive information campaign focused on schoolchildren to increase their awareness of the increasing number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections.
“We will partner with schools and have more information education campaigns to make the young people more aware of HIV, what not to do to be infected, and what to do once infected,” Dr. Celia Flor Brillantes, city health officer, said in a phone interview with the Philippine News Agency on Tuesday.
“We need to reach the young people because our record shows that most of the active clients are between the ages of 15 to 34,” she said.
Brillantes said the Department of Education (DepEd) has embedded in its curriculum an age and level-based topic on sexuality, and they boost it by partnering with schools for other activities to better inform the youth on self-protection.
She said they will also include youth organizations, including the Sangguniang Kabataan, to reach the country’s target of ending the HIV pandemic by 2030.
As of February 2025, the DOH-Cordillera has recorded 1,295 confirmed HIV cases in the region since the country started surveillance in 1984. More than 50 percent of the cases are in Baguio City.
However, the DOH said in a report that the estimated actual number of cases in the region is 2,400, with many of them not knowing of their HIV status.
“We need to find them, that is why we are aggressive in our testing and screening activities so that they can be treated and brought to a status where they are no longer contagious,” Brillantes said.
Free testing can be requested by anyone through a meet and test system at a place desired by the client, she noted.
Darwin Babon, DOH-Cordillera’s development management officer and regional coordinator, said in an earlier press conference that there are now eight HIV treatment hubs in the region – four of them in Baguio City, and one each in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, and Kalinga.
“We are making the treatment hubs accessible so that the public can be encouraged to go for testing and receive treatment for free once they test positive,” Babon said.
He agreed that while HIV remains untreatable, a person living with HIV can live with normalcy if receiving treatment. (PNA)
